Whatever happened to storytelling?
It’s a question I’ve found myself asking quite a lot lately.
I read that people want real stories, the personal, authentic glimpses into someone’s life. I was watching a YouTube video on this yesterday, and I thought, “Yes, I’ve been there.” But scroll through your average feed, and you’ll see something else entirely. A parade of how-to guides: how to write better, how to be more productive, how to succeed at something (anything!), how to do this and that.
Then there are the ‘how-to’ stories — which, ironically, often don’t contain much storytelling at all.
They all seem to follow the same formula:
- Identify a problem.
- Explain why it matters.
- Offer a neat solution.
- Finish with a motivational takeaway and a promise of success.
And that’s fine, for a certain type of writing. There’s a huge audience for that kind of thing. The self-help and “personal development” world is thriving. But that’s not always storytelling. That’s instruction. It has a purpose — but it’s not quite the same as sitting someone down and saying, “Let me tell you what happened to me one summer…”
Or, “I wrote a book of good stories that might offer a life lesson or two. Hopefully, you enjoy the read.”
A story doesn’t need to solve a problem. It doesn’t need to teach you how to fix your life or build a better version of yourself. Sometimes, a story just needs to help the reader drift off into a different world for a few minutes — escapism.
But surely, storytelling is, and always has been, about entertainment.